Days 26-30: 2/26-3/2
After a long day of class, I decided to sleep in and get some rest before our first ultimate Frisbee practice, which started at 4pm. We played for about 2 hours at Wentsworth Park, which is right down the street from UniLodge. We had never really walked in this direction prior to now and discovered a drycleaners along the way – it’s also a Laundromat and Laundromats here do alterations and provide virtually all clothing services. After practice, everyone in Ultimate Frisbee met back at Lansdowne for some dinner and I got a $6 grilled chicken breast with mashed potatoes, which was pretty good considering the price. It was a calm night – we watched about half of “Slumdog Millionaire” and fell asleep.
Friday began at 9:30am when Chuck and I got up and got set for a trip to Manly Beach. We took the bus and met the Canadians at Circular Quay by 11am where we took a 20 minute ferry ride across the harbor to the North side at Manly Wharf. The beach was terrific – it is far less crowded and trafficked than Bondi and the water was much warmer. There’s a pretty little shopping center between the wharf and the beach full of little cafes, restaurants, convenience stores, and beach shops. We grabbed lunch at the Subway and some gelato on the way home. The night began at UniLodge where we had a few drinks while waiting for everybody to show up. Once everybody had arrived, we took a 30 minute walk to a bar on University of Sydney campus called Marley Bar. It was a fun, more casual place, which was nice for a change. We ended up leaving at around 1am to find a place downtown called The Ivy. This is a more upscale club and some of the people with us had white tennis shoes and subsequently weren’t allowed in (they’re very anal about dress codes here – hats aren’t allowed most places which bothers me because I wear a hat most of the time). I wasn’t too disappointed we weren’t let in since it wasn’t really my scene anyways. We instead went to a place called Side Bar which is much closer to UniLodge. I was happy because I had a coupon for a free drink. At about 3am, I called it a night and went home.
By the next morning, I was pretty worn out, and didn’t leave my bed until Luke came knocking on my door. He announced that people were interested in taking another trip to Bondi Beach, and it was a beautiful day, so we got set and left. The perfect weather didn’t make for the best day at Bondi, as the beach was extremely packed, but we made the most of it and stayed until dusk. We showered up and hung out for a while and discussed going to a pub about 20 minutes away (by foot) called 3 Wise Monkeys. The whole group of us agreed, but despite this, when Lauren received a phone call from another friend five minutes later offering free alcohol, she immediately diverted everybody to another room that was heading to Side Bar. Luke, Chuck, and I remained and kept with the initial plan. Of course, about 15 minutes after we got there, I received a call from Lauren who decided to show up with the others (not including the people from the other room). Before the night was over we had made another stop at a smaller pub called “Cheers” across the street. I was a little fed up with being asked to take my hat off (especially at this little place) and was warned about four times by the same lady. I was hoping I’d just be asked to leave, but we ended up just going on our own.
By the time I was up and organized, Luke again stopped by room; this time to inform me they were going to a burrito shop by Marley Bar called Guzman y Gomez. I have felt severely deprived of Chipotle and was excited to give this place a try. I was a little disappointed in the size of my quesadillas, but thought Lauren’s burrito looked tasty, so I bought one to bring home with me. The group today consisted of Chuck, Luke, Emily, Lauren, and I. The initial pack of ours has slowly been splitting over the past few weeks. Essentially everyone in UniLodge sticks together and ditto for the ‘Gumalies’ as we call them (except for a small swap of Tessa, who’s next door to me, and Emily). So in summation, the groups are as follows: Gumalies = Christina, Liz, Jenna, Tessa, and Chris(?); UniLodge = Me, Luke Vincent, Chuck, Lauren, Emily, and Julia. We’ve accumulated many mutual friends and a few relationships still exist between our groups so we still see quite a bit of each other anyways. After lunch, we stopped at the Blockbuster across the street from UniLodge and rented an Australian based television ‘mock’umentary called “Summer Heights High”. We nearly finished the entire season before we took a break for dinner at Broadway Café. We came back, finished the last three episodes, and called it a night. Monday is opera day – “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is playing at the opera house. I took my first real run outside today and found a decent route finally, so hopefully I’ll make a habit of it rather than dole in the monotony of the treadmill. I had one class from 3-5pm, got home, changed, and we left. The opera was not exactly what I was expecting – on main stage was an orchestra and different members of it performed an abridged version, with intermittent interludes and songs. Our tickets cost us AUD$35, which was a great deal, but our seats were in the very last row (our backs were literally against the wall). The theater isn’t that large though, so it wasn’t too bad. The other problem was that I hadn’t read any of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” yet, so it took a while to understand what was going on in addition to adapting to the dialects. After the intermission and reading the program guide, I had a much better grasp and began enjoying it much more. It wasn’t anything amazing, but a great experience nonetheless. We got home, I wrote this blog, did (will do) a bit of homework readings, and went to bed.
I would also like to take this opportunity to announce that I will begin to limit the amount of material I post on my blog, as I will not be nearly as active or engaged in daily ev
ents as I was before the start of classes. I wanted to make an effort to record as much I could to start the trip, and feel I have accomplished this by writing entries for my first 30 days. So from now on, I will be posting weekly, and only mentioning the interesting details, rather than where I ate for dinner. I’m missing all of you back home and thank you for reading!
After a long day of class, I decided to sleep in and get some rest before our first ultimate Frisbee practice, which started at 4pm. We played for about 2 hours at Wentsworth Park, which is right down the street from UniLodge. We had never really walked in this direction prior to now and discovered a drycleaners along the way – it’s also a Laundromat and Laundromats here do alterations and provide virtually all clothing services. After practice, everyone in Ultimate Frisbee met back at Lansdowne for some dinner and I got a $6 grilled chicken breast with mashed potatoes, which was pretty good considering the price. It was a calm night – we watched about half of “Slumdog Millionaire” and fell asleep.
Friday began at 9:30am when Chuck and I got up and got set for a trip to Manly Beach. We took the bus and met the Canadians at Circular Quay by 11am where we took a 20 minute ferry ride across the harbor to the North side at Manly Wharf. The beach was terrific – it is far less crowded and trafficked than Bondi and the water was much warmer. There’s a pretty little shopping center between the wharf and the beach full of little cafes, restaurants, convenience stores, and beach shops. We grabbed lunch at the Subway and some gelato on the way home. The night began at UniLodge where we had a few drinks while waiting for everybody to show up. Once everybody had arrived, we took a 30 minute walk to a bar on University of Sydney campus called Marley Bar. It was a fun, more casual place, which was nice for a change. We ended up leaving at around 1am to find a place downtown called The Ivy. This is a more upscale club and some of the people with us had white tennis shoes and subsequently weren’t allowed in (they’re very anal about dress codes here – hats aren’t allowed most places which bothers me because I wear a hat most of the time). I wasn’t too disappointed we weren’t let in since it wasn’t really my scene anyways. We instead went to a place called Side Bar which is much closer to UniLodge. I was happy because I had a coupon for a free drink. At about 3am, I called it a night and went home.
By the next morning, I was pretty worn out, and didn’t leave my bed until Luke came knocking on my door. He announced that people were interested in taking another trip to Bondi Beach, and it was a beautiful day, so we got set and left. The perfect weather didn’t make for the best day at Bondi, as the beach was extremely packed, but we made the most of it and stayed until dusk. We showered up and hung out for a while and discussed going to a pub about 20 minutes away (by foot) called 3 Wise Monkeys. The whole group of us agreed, but despite this, when Lauren received a phone call from another friend five minutes later offering free alcohol, she immediately diverted everybody to another room that was heading to Side Bar. Luke, Chuck, and I remained and kept with the initial plan. Of course, about 15 minutes after we got there, I received a call from Lauren who decided to show up with the others (not including the people from the other room). Before the night was over we had made another stop at a smaller pub called “Cheers” across the street. I was a little fed up with being asked to take my hat off (especially at this little place) and was warned about four times by the same lady. I was hoping I’d just be asked to leave, but we ended up just going on our own.
By the time I was up and organized, Luke again stopped by room; this time to inform me they were going to a burrito shop by Marley Bar called Guzman y Gomez. I have felt severely deprived of Chipotle and was excited to give this place a try. I was a little disappointed in the size of my quesadillas, but thought Lauren’s burrito looked tasty, so I bought one to bring home with me. The group today consisted of Chuck, Luke, Emily, Lauren, and I. The initial pack of ours has slowly been splitting over the past few weeks. Essentially everyone in UniLodge sticks together and ditto for the ‘Gumalies’ as we call them (except for a small swap of Tessa, who’s next door to me, and Emily). So in summation, the groups are as follows: Gumalies = Christina, Liz, Jenna, Tessa, and Chris(?); UniLodge = Me, Luke Vincent, Chuck, Lauren, Emily, and Julia. We’ve accumulated many mutual friends and a few relationships still exist between our groups so we still see quite a bit of each other anyways. After lunch, we stopped at the Blockbuster across the street from UniLodge and rented an Australian based television ‘mock’umentary called “Summer Heights High”. We nearly finished the entire season before we took a break for dinner at Broadway Café. We came back, finished the last three episodes, and called it a night. Monday is opera day – “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is playing at the opera house. I took my first real run outside today and found a decent route finally, so hopefully I’ll make a habit of it rather than dole in the monotony of the treadmill. I had one class from 3-5pm, got home, changed, and we left. The opera was not exactly what I was expecting – on main stage was an orchestra and different members of it performed an abridged version, with intermittent interludes and songs. Our tickets cost us AUD$35, which was a great deal, but our seats were in the very last row (our backs were literally against the wall). The theater isn’t that large though, so it wasn’t too bad. The other problem was that I hadn’t read any of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” yet, so it took a while to understand what was going on in addition to adapting to the dialects. After the intermission and reading the program guide, I had a much better grasp and began enjoying it much more. It wasn’t anything amazing, but a great experience nonetheless. We got home, I wrote this blog, did (will do) a bit of homework readings, and went to bed.
I would also like to take this opportunity to announce that I will begin to limit the amount of material I post on my blog, as I will not be nearly as active or engaged in daily ev
ents as I was before the start of classes. I wanted to make an effort to record as much I could to start the trip, and feel I have accomplished this by writing entries for my first 30 days. So from now on, I will be posting weekly, and only mentioning the interesting details, rather than where I ate for dinner. I’m missing all of you back home and thank you for reading!
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